Keene (by Alicia Plummer) is the cover sweater: a big cozy garment knit from bulky weight yarn. The sample is knit from Berroco Ultra® Alpaca Chunky. It’s knit in the round — a boone for all who hate seaming!

Rockland (by Alicia Plummer) is a textured hat made from aran weight Blue Sky Fibers Extra. The pattern is a lovely honeycomb cable that works nicely in this design.

All of the patterns in this book give off a soft, comfy, cozy vibe — perfect for combatting winter chill.

Interweave has knidly offered a second copy as a giveaway to my readers. To be entered in the drawing for a copy of Plum Dandi Knits: Simple Designs for Luxury Yarns by Alicia Plummer and Melissa Schaschwary, please leave a comment on this blog post telling me which of the designs in the book is your favorite. I’ll select a winner at random on Sunday (December 3) at noon Eastern time.

After the long slog of knitting a cardigan, I wanted a “palate cleanser” — a quick knit for more or less immediate gratification. Last week I whipped out a cowl.

This is based on Kate Davies pattern, the Betty Mouat Cowl. Instead of working two “sides” and grafting them together, I simply worked one long tube.

I used a semisolid plus a rainbow gradient — well, half of a rainbow gradient. The yarn is a fingering weight merino/cashmere/nylon blend from Etsy seller Wanderlusthues. It’s a lovely soft yarn, just right for a cowl that is worn next to the skin.

I started another cowl.

This is Land of Sweets, a cowl pattern that is part of Helen Stewart’s Knitvent 2017. The cowl takes 24 miniskeins of fingering weight yarn. I had a lot of fun picking out the miniskeins I wanted to use and putting them in order. Here they are:

It’s a cocoon-style cardi, so not that easy to photograph successfully, but hopefully you get the idea.

Veronika is a pattern by Shannon Cook, and it’s a very well-written pattern, easy to follow. I used the same yarn as the designer: YOTH Daughter. I used the Black Truffle colorway, a lovely sooty black. Not the best choice for knitting in the evening in low light, but this is not a complex pattern so I had no problems.

I finished this Friday night and cast on for a quickie project.

This is the Blue Angel Headband designed by Gretchen Tracy, a free pattern available via Ravelry. I used Malabrigo Rasta ultra-bulky yarn, in the Arequita colorway and a size U.S. 15 needle. I’m not overly fond of knitting at this gauge, but I put in a couple of hours and the result is this very cute warm headband that I am going to use quite often this winter.

I really do want a cocoon style sweater, so I started another one: the Veronika Cardigan designed by Shannon Cook. I’m using the suggested yarn, YOTH Daughter, because I’d not used it before and wanted to try it out. I am using the Black Truffle colorway. My progress so far:

I am getting exact stitch and row gauge with the suggested needle, a U.S. size 8. This is an easy knit, so it’s good for mindless knitting while watching tv or socializing, Knitting with black yarn in the evening can be a challenge, but since the pattern is easy, that’s not a big issue.

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